Bellingham school budget unveiled

BELLINGHAM — The School Committee unveiled the district’s $22.2 million budget for next fiscal year on Tuesday before an audience of parents, students and teachers, saying it represents a more than $1.2 million increase over this fiscal year.

The six percent increase, school officials said, stands as the largest in recent years.

Balancing the budget proved difficult this year, Bellingham Superintendent Edward Fleury said, mostly because the district could not pull from the revolving funds it had relied on as early as last year. In fiscal year 2013, the district faced a $675,000 increase.

"This budget increase has far exceeded what we’ve seen in the past," Fleury said. "We looked at every angle."

The challenges, too, include rising special education costs and stagnant state aid.

To raise revenue in fiscal year 2015, the committee opted for an across-the-board increase in district fees, including for athletics, lunch and transportation. The measures helped shave more than $700,000 from the initial budget increase, which started at more than $2 million.

The school department also looked at cutting or reconfiguring positions, Fleury said. In all, the district lost nine positions – including four full-time teachers to layoffs.

Students spoke out against the cuts. "We are standing up for our teachers," one said.

On the other hand, the district added more than 7 positions, including an assistant speech and language pathologist and an occupational therapist to work within the elementary schools. Taken together, the net loss of positions is 1.8.

Overall, Fleury said the district had to slash most budget requests. For instance, teachers had requested more than $61,000 worth of classroom supplies, eventually cut to about $14,000.

"This budget wasn’t always easy to work on, dealing with the resources we have at our disposal," said committee chairman Daniel Ranieri. "On the same token, we had a tremendous amount of help, participation and involvement that included many, many people."